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. 2022:2430:151-183.
doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1983-4_10.

Assembling Microtubule-Based Active Matter

Alexandra M Tayar #  1 , Linnea M Lemma #  2 , Zvonimir Dogic  3
Affiliations

Assembling Microtubule-Based Active Matter

Alexandra M Tayar et al. Methods Mol Biol. 2022.

Abstract

Studied for more than a century, equilibrium liquid crystals provided insight into the properties of ordered materials, and led to commonplace applications such as display technology. Active nematics are a new class of liquid crystal materials that are driven out of equilibrium by continuous motion of the constituent anisotropic units. A versatile experimental realization of active nematic liquid crystals is based on rod-like cytoskeletal filaments that are driven out of equilibrium by molecular motors. We describe protocols for assembling microtubule-kinesin based active nematic liquid crystals and associated isotropic fluids. We describe the purification of each protein and the assembly process of a two-dimensional active nematic on a water-oil interface. Finally, we show examples of nematic formation and describe methods for quantifying their non-equilibrium dynamics.

Keywords: Active matter; Autonomous flows; Kinesin motors; Liquid crystals; Microtubules; Self-organization; Topological defects.

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